Insomnia
by Youkai Ryuu
Summary: Oneshot, Certain events have Sakura taken off of active duty. And have caused her insomnia. But when Sakura tries to sleep she might never wake up. And Naruto might be the only one to save her. NaruSaku


Disclaimer: Don't own, you know that

Summary: One-shot, Certain events have Sakura taken off of active duty. And have caused her insomnia. But when Sakura tries to sleep she might never wake up. And Naruto might be the only one to save her. Naru/Saku

Insomnia 

**By: ** Youkai Ryuu

The rain continued to pound on the roofs of the houses. The sky was a dark murky gray with thick clouds that seemed to be sinking from the weight of all the rain. It had been like this since mid-night of last night.

Sakura sat on her bedroom's floor next to the glass doors leading to her balcony. She had sat there for nearly the entire day only getting up to get some food and returning. She leaned her head to the cold glass staring at the rain droplets that slid down the surface on the outside. Her bed was messy. The blanket thrown across the bed so it was hanging on the bedpost. The sheets drenched with sweat and pulled out of place so it showed the mattress. The pillow was torn near the edges and discarded on the other side of the room. Sakura hadn't slept in quite some time.

Her heart beat was a steady rhythm but pounding so hard she felt it in her throat. Deep bags were under her usual bright green eyes, now dulled like the sky. Her body was sticky with all the sweat and made her night shirt stick to her frame. Her breath was hitched and she was breathing deeply to make her heart stop pounding so hard. Her hair was messy and tangled even though she still wore it short. And her bangs clung to her forehead because of the absence of the usual forehead protector she wore.

The only sound besides her unsteady breath and the pounding rain was the steady ticking of the clock that hung over her desk. Sakura stared aimlessly at the raining sky, her eyes only attracted to a certain spot when lightning flashed. The thunder boomed a few seconds later shaking the glass objects in the house. Sakura felt the glass door shudder from the vibrations. And still the clock ticked on.

'How long has it been?' Sakura thought and let her mind drift again. Her hearing to its own accord began to block out the sound of the rain and her breathing. All she heard of the tic tok of the clock and the deafening silence that had possessed her home. No not home, it used to be a home to a family that once lived here. But all of them died and after the years their presence faded from the home. Taking the warm welcoming feeling along with it. Now it was just a house that Haruno, Sakura lived in.

She stayed like that for who knows how long. Her body felt heavy like when you have a fever. Sakura didn't know if she had one or not, she didn't bother to check. And still the clocked ticked. Sakura moved her hand a bit, she wasn't sure if she willingly made it move, but it did. Her fingertips dug into the carpet of her room feeling the thick fabric. She continued moving her finger over the carpet, until her hand finally touched something cool. Her hand automatically grasped it feeling the small object against her palm. Sakura didn't have to look at it to know that it was the glass figurine Ino bought her a few months ago. Suddenly her hearing picked up on a loud hollow bang. It startled her and her eyes immediately focused on the source of the noise. It was the clock. Instead of the usual soft ticking, with each tick is sounded like a heavy object falling. Her eyes widened as she saw the clock magnified. It looked like she was peering through a magnifying glass at the object. Her breath began to become rapid, her heartbeats seemed to be felt throughout her entire body.

"S…Stop." Sakura shakily said in a whisper. "Stop." She said louder. She felt herself starting to panic. The clock wouldn't stop ticking. "Stop!" she finally screamed, flinging the glass figurine at the offending object. With her precise aim, developed in all the years of being a shinobi, it wasn't a surprise it hit it's mark dead center. The glass exploded. Shards of it sprayed the room landing into objects that were in the way and on the floor and desk. One small piece nicked Sakura on the cheek. Slowly her breath calmed till it was like before, still hitched and deep. The sound of the ticking slowly stopped as the clock slowly died down.

Now the only noise the filled the room was her breath and the rain. Her eyes unfocused, gazing dazedly at the dark room. And her sight fell on the small sparkling glass shards lying in the carpet. It shined and sparkled with each crack of lightning, like fresh dew drops on the grass. Sakura swallowed her saliva, which burned her dry throat. Her eyes unfocused again as she kept staring at the sparkling shards.

It was night and the sky was dotted with glimmering stars in the velvety sky. Sakura sat on the railing of the bridge Team 7 used to meet at in the mornings. Sakura was a medic-nin for quite some time now, about three years, under the tutelage of Tsunade-sama. Sakura sighed as she began to kick her feet while staring up at the sky.

_She was waiting for someone. Tonight was the festival celebrating the Chuunun exams that was taking place. It was the first time since Orochimaru's invasion that Konoha had hosted this event. And it was the Konoha tradition to end the festival with fireworks. And it would be about two hour more till they set off the first fireworks of the evening. Sakura began to become irritated, as the noise of the festival grew louder._

'_Mou! I wanna try some of the games! Damn where are those guys!' Inner Sakura yelled shaking a mental fist._

"_Sakura-chan!" A loud obnoxious voice shouted waving a hand to get her attention._

"_Geez, why're you so late?" Sakura asked annoyed and jumping off the railing and onto the bridge._

"_It's not my fault! It took some time trying to get this asshole over here." Naruto glaring at the Uchiha behind him._

"_Oh, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said smiling and walking to his side. "Let's try some of the games. I know you'll win!" And she began to walk off to the festival dragging along a somewhat irritated Uchiha along._

"_Hey! Wait for me!" Naruto shouted chasing after them._

_And in the corner of Sakura's eyes as she looked over her shoulder at Naruto, she saw the starlight reflected on the water's surface._

Slowly Sakura came out of her reverie of her past. Her eyes focused as the sounds came back. Her stomach began to hurt; she hadn't eaten for a while. With no hurry Sakura raised her hand and grasped the latch to pull the door, and slowly she began to rise. A sudden wave of light-headedness hit her hard as she stumbled forward letting go of the latch. After it began to ebb away, Sakura proceeded forward to the door of her room, stepping on the shards with her bare feet. She didn't quite register the pain with the ache in her stomach dominated her pain receptors.

She walked to her kitchen, not bothering to turn on any of the lights along the way. Sakura opened her frig door and took out whatever she could get her hands on, which turned out to be a carton of juice, and a cake.

Sakura set those down on the kitchen table while grabbing a fork. And she began to eat. She drank out of the carton since there was only enough left for one person, and ate the cake not bothering to be neat.

With food in her stomach, Sakura's mind woke from the long sleep it took.

How long was it since she last ate? How long was it since she last been outside? And how in the seven hells did she end up like this? The question began to process through her brain. What happened that made her like this? A lifeless girl that couldn't sleep. Now thinking about it, when was the last time Sakura slept?

Sakura put down her fork, trying to remember what had happened before this came about.

The kitchen was quiet and dark. The rain was still continuing with no signs of it stopping anytime soon. Sakura rubbed her temples trying to ease the ache the had started.

It shouldn't had been too long ago. Maybe a week or two, but nothing came to her. Only the memories of tossing and turning in bed, of the rain that poured, and darkness. A feeling of unease began to creep up on her. Desperately she tried to recall any recent event that occurred within the past month. Nothing. Her breathing was growing rapid again, her heart beat became a bit faster. Sakura shook her head violently trying to get rid of the daze. Anything, anything at all, but it was still no use. She couldn't remember. The unease had become full out panic now. Sakura was hyper-venerating , trying to calm herself down. She began to rock herself in her chair, trying not to pass out from too much air.

'Naruto.' The name came to her thoughts. 'Naruto, he'll know. He has to know.' Shakily she pushed herself up with wobbly arms. And slowly she made her way to the telephone in the kitchen. Her hands were shaking violently as she picked up the receiver and punched his number. With both hands she pressed it to her ear.

The phone rang once. 'Naruto.' It rang again. 'Naruto.' Now her thoughts began to buzz. Finally someone picked up on the other line.

"Hello?" the blonde's voice said sleepily. Sakura breath slowed down somewhat. "Hello?" his voice was becoming a bit annoyed.

"Na…Na…Naru" Sakura's mouth had trouble forming his name.

"Sakura? Sakura!" it sounded like he was finally fully awake. "Sakura!" he shouted again as no one replied.

All the time, Sakura's mouth had trouble trying to form the words. "Hel..p muh…meh..me" Sakura swallowed hard.

"Sakura is something wrong?" it was obvious he was worried now.

"S…suh..sca…scared." She whispered.

"Scared? Scared of what?" Naruto asked louder than her intended. "Sakura, tell me!"

"Ca…n't" Finally the trembling took her entire body. It took all her effort to keep the receiver near her ear. Her knees were wobbling dangerously and after a moment of trying to compose herself, her knees gave way.

Naruto heard a thud on the other end and it made his heart skip a beat. "Sakura?" he asked uncertainly. "Sakura are you still there!"

"Help," she finally whispered as she began to sob.

"Sakura stay there. I'll be there as fast as I can!" with that Naruto hung up the phone. He grabbed his keys and a rain coat, though he knew he'll still get drenched, and he was off.

Sakura didn't bother to hand up the phone as she sat there sobbing. No tears had trickled down yet. Her mind was filled with a high pitched buzz as she racked her brain for any memory leading up to this. But it seemed she locked those memories somewhere along with Inner Sakura, because by now her inner self would've said something. But she remained quiet and no where in her mind. After minutes of trying to force herself to remember, she came to the conclusion that she needed sleep. Sleep would be good for her, after sleeping she would be able to think more clearly.

With all her effort she pushed herself up and walked towards the bathroom on the second floor, right next to her bedroom. She stumbled multiple times and few times on the stairs. It was only when her feet slapped on the cold tile floor of her bathroom, was she aware of the pain in her feet. Two trembling hands turned on the faucet, and splashed the lukewarm water unto her damp face. Sakura looked up to the mirror. She jumped at her reflection, gasping in surprise. Slowly she touched the mirror, her reflection doing the same. What she saw wasn't her. It didn't look like Sakura, the expert medic-nin. It looked like a shell of a former living girl, with lost eyes, deathly pale face, and messy hair.

Sakura rubbed her eyes, hoping against hope that it was a trick. She even used kai to dispel the evil illusion, but of no avail. It was reality, it was her. Sakura spent more time looking at her reflection, scrutinizing her image at all the flaws. In the corner of her eye she saw someone.

'Ah ha!' she though triumphantly, thinking she found the ninja that was responsible for all this. When she whipped her head around she saw nothing but the peach colored walls. 'I'm starting to loose it. Ha, like I even have it now.' She thought turning her attention back to the mirror. What she saw next made her scream. Her mother and father were in the mirror right behind her. But instead of their usual smiling gentle faces, she saw monsters.

Her father was gone for a mission, and had died during their return to Konoha. His team managed to bring back the decapitated body. In the mirror he was standing against the opposite wall in his right arm, he was holding her mother. Sakura's mother had died of an illness about few months after her father's funeral. And the illness rendered her mother blind, with bruised sore spots all over her body and deep wrinkles. It looked like she had died of old age instead of sickness.

She screamed as loud as she could, but the storm outside prevented anyone from hearing.

"You're not there, not there, not there…" she kept repeating as she opened the medicine cabinet for the sleeping pills. If she couldn't go to sleep normally she'll use medication.

And all the while in her mind she thought 'Sleep, I need sleep. They're only here because my brain hasn't rested in a long ass while.'

Sakura took out the small plastic bottle, and silently refused to close the cabinet. She poured herself a glass of water and swallowed two pills to help sleep. Her body started to tingle, she wanted to vomit, but couldn't. She wanted to cry, but the tears refused to shed. She took the glass of water and sleeping pills with her to her bedroom.

She stepped on the glass again, not caring if she would die of the blood loss. She sat on her bed, setting down the pills and water on the floor. A wave of calm flooded her as she leaned back, but it wasn't enough. She swallowed three more pills, trying to speed up the process. A little in the back of her head, probably the medic in her, told her she was taking an over dose and with the blood loss from the shards embedded in her feet, it wasn't a good idea. But she totally disregarded it as the wave of calm intensified.

Slowly she leaned back, her eyes half closed. The little voice was telling her now that she might never wake up if she slept. But Sakura being the state she was in now, thought that it was good.

A hazy image began to form in her mind as the pills started to take affect.

_Sasuke was walking out onto the roof the hospital. Sakura was still shocked from his comment, when she was treating him for the injuries after his week long missions. Sakura lost sight of him as he walked through the door._

_Sakura stood behind the door, despretly to collect her thoughts. Composing herself, she put on a fake understanding smile and pushed the door open. Sasuke was leaning on the railing on the opposite side_

_"Ne, Sasuke-kun." She said approaching him, making sure she was still smiling. Sasuke didn't answer only glancing at her slightly shaking form as she stood next to him. "Sasuke-kun?" She drifted off, looking at her former teammate with uncertainty in her eyes._

_"Go away Sakura, I want to be alone." He simply said looking at the other direction avoiding her gaze._

_"Did you really mean-"_

_"I said go away!" Sasuke said harsher._

_"But Sasuke-ku-"_

_"Go away!"_

_Sakura's lip trembled. Her mother had just died recently leaving her an orphan with no relatives. The amount of patients in the hospital was mounting to an all time high for the past few years. And to top it all off Ino, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Kiba were in emergency surgery after their mission. She didn't need shit from the Uchiha._

_"Sasuke, please," Sakura's voice was strained. She was trying her best not to unleash her emotions._

_"There's nothing to say!" Sasuke finally snapped._

_"Yes, there is. So say it already. It'll help both of us feel better." Her voice was even more strained now. She gripped the railing with both her hands making her knuckles white. "You've been really odd lately. And maybe I'm thinking too much but you seem to be implying that you-"_

_"That's right." Sasuke cut in. Both were avoiding eye contact._

_"Sasuke, you know I care about you. If something's wrong-"_

_"Nothing's wrong. Can you please drop it."_

_"C'mon. We're your friends."_

_"Nothing's wrong. Go away already!"_

_"Listen you selfish bastard!" Sakura finally burst out. She grabbed Sasuke so he would face her. "I'm dealing with to much shit from everything, and I don't need you to add to it. If you've got something to say, say it to my face, instead of always implying it when your talking to me!" Sakura screamed, glaring at the onyx eyed boy that stood before her._

_Sasuke was somewhat surprised at her outburst. But from the moment they were assigned in the same team, he knew Sakura was just a time bomb waiting to set off. He glared back at her, and grabbed her wrist that had a firm hold on his shirt. He was a ninja too, and still physically stronger. So he pried off Sakura's grip and pushed her off of him._

_"Whatever." Sasuke muttered breaking their glaring contest._

_"I just became and orphan. I'm not ask for pity, but can you at least not give me this crap?" she said calming down a bit. She was still angry at the emotionless Uchiha, but she still cared for him. Though she still in a way loved him._

_"Loosing family is hard, but you still have it great." Sasuke finally said leaning back on the railing._

_"What?" Sakura asked confused._

_"Your mother died of an illness and your father died on a mission. Those are typical deaths in a shinobi's life. Get over it. And you still have all of your friends." Sakura couldn't desifer Sasuke's tone. It wasn't sarcastic, nor was it truly meant to hurt her. He was telling Sakura that she still had people that cared for her, even though her family was now dead. But there was a hint of something. Something she couldn't really tell what it was._

_"I know that. And you do too. Me, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-"_

_"No, it's not the same." Sasuke quietly stated, his head hung lower than before. "You never had to experience the lonlieness. You still had your family when we were kids. You never had to return to an empty home. You had someone to return too. I had nothing. You had love-"_

_"Your wrong. I love you. You have me…"_

_Sasuke laughed. "Love Sakura, not a crush or affection."_

_"No, I did love you!" Sakura said offended. "And I still do." She murmered, looking at the floor. She felt her face heating up. 'Damn, I feel like a school girl!'_

_"Your still annoying." Sasuke said looking directly into her eyes. Sakura blinked trying to get that in. When she opened her eyes the raven haired Uchiha was gone._

_'Annoying?' she felt something inside her finally break. That was the second time Sasuke had said it to her. Her body suddenly became heavy and her knees buckled. But her reflexes were just as sharp, she grab hold of the railing preventing her fall. Her heart pounded faster as her face grew hotter. The salt tears were brimming in her eyes. But biting her lip, Sakura refused to cry. Steadily she made her way back to the emergency rooms, all the wile refusing to have a nervous break down._

Sakura came out of her stupor. That's right, that's what happened. Because of that, she couldn't focus when she was healing her friends. There were numerous mistakes on her part that was the first time she ever messed up on a live patient. Because of those mistakes, Hinata was forced to undergo the surgery again, and Kiba was in a temporary comma. All because of Sasuke calling her annoying.

The corner's of Sakura's lips twitched into a smile. 'That's right. I'm still weak. He just called me annoying and I didn't have enough sense to brush it off. Because of that, two of my friends might die.' Sakura began to cry, but it sounded like she was laughing. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she continued to cry/laugh. Because of that, Tsunade forced her to take a break, demanding she get herself back together. But look at where she was now. Sakura needed sleep. Tsunade told her to rest as much as possible. But since that day she hadn't been able to sleep at all. Sakura took two more sleeping pills, But before she could toss it into her mouth a hang grabbed her wrist. Frightened, Sakura jerked her hand out of the grip, spilling the pills on the floor along side the glass.

"Sakura stop it." The person commanded her. She looked up into the eyes of Naruto.

Naruto came in when she was remembering. He forced the door open and turned on the lights. His heart sunk when he saw bloody footprints on the floor. His mind didn't allow himself to jump to conclusions as she raced off to search for Sakura.

When he looked into the room, he nearly jumped. It looked like Sakura was lying dead on her bed. And that someone had broken in and killed her. He saw glass shards on the floor with numerous bloody foot prints, probably Sakura's. And he saw a small bottle at the foot of her bed along with a glass of water. When he saw Sakura taking more pills, he immediately stopped her.

"I need to sleep," She spoke harshly and tried to grab the bottle of sleeping pills. But in her state of woozyness the blood loss had finally gotten to her with the sleeping pills combined, she missed. Naruto was faster and took the pills before she could even stoop down.

"Sleeping pills?" He asked increduiously. "How many did you take?" He capped the bottle and put it out of reach from the kunoichi.

"None of your business." Sakura shot back, trying to stand. But the pain in her feet made her fall back. Naruto caught her in time. He sat her down in a comfortable possistion with the pillow on her back. Naruto sat down besides her moving her feet, so he could see the damage done. He flinched at the sight.

"It'll be dangerous to try and remove them. They're in too deep, and you lost to much blood" He stated as he began to rip her bed sheets so it could be used as bandages. After he finished his work he looked at Sakura who was nearly about to fall to sleep. "Hey, don't you give up!" He shouted shaking her awake.

"I need sleep." Sakura protested feebly, being jerked back into consciousness.

"What you need is to stay awake. Sakura, what happened?" He finally asked looking into her green eyes.

Sakura could feel herself beginning to hyper venerate again. The tears that were stinging her eyes began to leek. "No," she whispered pathetically moving her hands to her eyes to stop the flow.

"Sakura, calm down," Naruto commanded as he moved her so she was lying on his chest. "It's ok. I'm here now." He murmured brushing her sweat-matted hair.

The nervous break down, Sakura denied herself a week ago, she could do now. Without hesitation she began to cry. Cry the tears that went unshed during her parent's funerals, the tears from years of snide remarks from Sasuke, the tears of regret for nearly killing her friends, and the tears of regret and sorrow for always being unkind to Naruto.

"I killed them! I killed them!" Sakura cried into his chest as more tears came.

"Wha? No you didn't Hinata's operation went fine and Kiba's out of the comma. Both are recovering now." He said trying to comfort the hysteric girl in his arms.

And now Sakura cried the tears of relief.

After an hour worth of crying and comforting, Sakura finally settled down.

"Naruto, I'm tired." She whispered.

"Yea, I'm too."

"Naruto," she whispered shifting in his arms.

"Mmm," he tightened his grip on her form.

"I wanna sleep."

"Yea, I think we should."

"Naruto,"

"Mmm,"

"I love you."

"I know. I love you too."

With a smile Sakura and Naruto fell asleep in each other's arms. But they didn't miss the beam of sunshine that broke the sky of gray. And the light was shining on them.

End


End file.
